Test Equipment Anonymous

That's a nice pickup and a very kind thing to give that scope to that kid as a surprise gift. I hope he enjoys it. Do you know if he had anything to use it on, something he could safely probe to get a couple of interesting traces on the display? He could tinker together a relaxation oscillator usin...

There's a 50V tant across the 50V line. One of the tants has been replaced with a neat butt soldered in job. I'm inclined to replace all the ones in the PSU, but it's a lot of work Sprague C1428? Spec is indeed 50V on a 50V line. Oops. When I've seen tants fail spectacularly, they've gone red hot a...

Obvious when you bear in mind that that the grounding lead on the probe is a direct connection to mains earth, but it could easily be done As a kid I thought earth and neutral were at the same potential. Now I know better, including that I don't understand all the various types of mains electricity...

Well, I did take the precaution of giving him only a pair of 10X probes with it. ;) Sorry, I have to be boring and I know I'm teaching you how to suck eggs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaELqAo4kkQ Posting a yootoob vid. Oh, the indignity! Of course you are! I don't need Dave to show me how to b...

I hope he won't use it to measure the mains. Well, I did take the precaution of giving him only a pair of 10X probes with it. ;) Sorry, I have to be boring and I know I'm teaching you how to suck eggs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaELqAo4kkQ Posting a yootoob vid. Oh, the indignity!

I was lucky; a light touch, then the involuntary rapid muscle contraction broke contact.

Yeah, from one hand to the other, in one case

My concern is more about where a probe's shield goes.

BTW, those multimeter are squaddyproof. Bd made a video where he used one to forcibly insert a dowel.

Mum and I talked aboot similar behaviors in him, and I decided this was someone who could definitely benefit from having a decent working scope, so we packed it away in the trunk of her car as a surprise once he got home. Hopefully it will help him get a similar start down a productive road in life...

Zenith wrote: ↑Sun Sep 08, 2024 3:57 pm

bd139 wrote: ↑Sun Sep 08, 2024 1:45 pm

tggzzz wrote: ↑Sun Sep 08, 2024 12:56 pm

Bit big and heavy to carry on a train/tube/etc

Bad enough up stairs

I have a trolley and a lift

A Weightlifter's belt would be a useful addition.

And some knees and a spine

bd139 wrote: ↑Sun Sep 08, 2024 10:32 am

Zenith wrote: ↑Sun Sep 08, 2024 10:13 am At Telford last weekend I was tempted to buy a Tek 7400 series scope with plugins for £10 to take to bits. A bit big and heavy though.

I'd have bought that Tek

Bit big and heavy to carry on a train/tube/etc

Bad enough up stairs

mnementh wrote: ↑Thu Sep 05, 2024 5:08 pm I sortof assumed you'd just steal a battery out of one of your Winblows laptops from work to bust up for decent quality cells...

That makes me think of an old slogan, and mutate it to "WWBOFH do?"

A wise move generally. I am less worried about the controllers than the cells themselves. The cells can look perfectly normal to a charge controller even if they are pissing fire out of one end. Quite possibly. I was presuming, possibly optimistically, that the equipment had started with decent cel...

It's getting whatever the shite charge controller does out of the box :lol: The possibility of shite controllers are one reason I don't like leaving low-end equipment containing Li batteries charge unattended. A wise move generally. I am less worried about the controllers than the cells themselves....

Yes a good idea that! Further thoughts to ponder on: Scope ON = solid color LED and/or flashing if being charged. Scope OFF but charging = LED in a flashing state, changing to a different but solid color when fully charged. It's getting whatever the shite charge controller does out of the box :lol:...

I must say it's not a thing that would have tempted me, but each to his own. I had a quick look at the manual and it said the batteries were necessary as they were used as giant capacitors. Finding replacement NiCds may not be easy these days. They were very tolerant of charging regimes and in part...

I remember seeing a (?Louis Theroux?) documentary about South Africa beyond Cape Town. One segment was about somebody who had developed a heavily armoured vehicle. Amongst other things, it spat fire from near it's wheels, to deter carjackers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLhWzMOccTg My recollect...

I remember seeing a (?Louis Theroux?) documentary about South Africa beyond Cape Town.

One segment was about somebody who had developed a heavily armoured vehicle. Amongst other things, it spat fire from near it's wheels, to deter carjackers.

That is a very very accurate observation. I've done some of a Silk Road already. It was full of Chinese labelled articulated lorries swerving around donkeys having an amble in the middle of the road. Insurance company is World Nomads https://www.worldnomads.com/ - they will cover weird destinations...

LOL And it is, gut raking Roo's and Emu's along with drop bears so a man needs protect himself. Roos and Emus are small beer. Cassowaries, numerous deadly snakes, Funnel Web spiders, gympie-gympie trees and that's just on land. In the water there are Salt Water crocodiles, Great White sharks, Box J...

I had to google the oil bath thing. Hell no :lol: I have specialist and rather expensive travel insurance that covers stupid places and altitude etc. The restrictions there are to stay out of the Armenian border area only. The North-East mountainous area where we're going after Baku is somewhat les...

Ok so all this thinking of Soviet stuff made me book another stupid holiday next year, because bugger all those normal places. So I'm off to Azerbaijan for a week or so. A small country wedged between Russia and Iran. This will involve flying past Ukraine, avoiding getting arrested and deported or ...

Ok so all this thinking of Soviet stuff made me book another stupid holiday next year, because bugger all those normal places. So I'm off to Azerbaijan for a week or so. A small country wedged between Russia and Iran. This will involve flying past Ukraine, avoiding getting arrested and deported or ...

Zenith wrote: ↑Tue Aug 27, 2024 11:06 pm Best of luck with this esoteric piece of TE which has doubtless found its forever home with a true enthusiast.

True enthusiast, no doubt. But "forever home" and bd causes a cognitive dissonance

I always regard rebranding as a negative. Either there is something to forget, or the managers know something isn't right but don't know what to do. That leads to "something must be done, this is something, this must be done". I apologise if I've told y'all this anecdote before. I used to...

From what I know of the Soviet defence sector, the persistence of the things is because they had regulatory requirement to be able to be self-sufficient as a nation and they had a lot of stock left lying around. On top of that the cost was much lower than newer technology. There were also restricti...